


Ending Up Back There

by Gadhar



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DC Animated Universe, DCU (Animated), DCU (Comics), DCU (Movies), Justice League: Doom, Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Bad Dreams, Claustrophobia, Fix-it fic, Fluffish, M/M, but very little, parent's murder, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-10
Updated: 2014-08-10
Packaged: 2018-02-12 14:24:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2113272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gadhar/pseuds/Gadhar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Bruce?" </p><p>Bruce jumps and feels like he's just plunged into frigid water.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ending Up Back There

**Author's Note:**

> Tags to the Justice League: Doom movie. I just find it hard to believe it did not shake Bruce up, _just a little_ , being trapped in a coffin with his parents' skeletons. 'Course he's Batman so that explains a lot by itself.
> 
> Anyway, I'm mildly curious as to how many hits a Superbat fic will get and how fast.

He can't breathe. There's nothing but the suffocating smell of earth and death and it's wretched the way it clogs and clings to the inside of his nose. 

Dad's skull wavers in his face and Bruce shoves away, his back hitting the cold alley wall. There's blood all over him, all over his knees and- 

No. No, he's in the casket. It's just dirt and wood down here but there's a skull and it's Dad's. And why. Why does he have to see his father again? Why like this? Why- 

Bruce sucks in a breath. Bane will pay for this. He will pay dearly and Bruce will enjoy every minute of it and he will get out of here. 

His eyes find the empty sockets of the skull again and he flinches. The mandible shifts, clicks, and Bruce tries to reel back but he can't move, the coffin is getting smaller. He's hovering over the skull and it's just looking at him. And it laughs. The damn thing laughs and it's Bane's voice. 

Bruce keeps his lips tight, holding back a scream, and shoves his back against the roof of the coffin, he has to get out, he has to- 

"Bruce?" 

Bruce jumps and feels like he's just plunged into frigid water. He looks into Clark's alien blue eyes and he curls into himself, cold. What even- Oh. Right. He remembers now. 

Bruce remembers the fight with Savage, the near death of over half the world. He remembers quitting the League, remembers no one understanding. But Clark did. Clark got it. He understood. And they ended up here, at the manor, tangled together and Alfred is going to be so _smug_ tomorrow. 

"'M fine." 

"Bruce, you're shaking." 

"Fine." Bruce mumbles again and he shoves his face into the pillow, willing his body to stop. It takes a moment, a moment longer than it should to walk through the meditation steps, the breathing exercises, but he calms and he can breathe and Dad's skull isn't lurking in his face anymore. 

Bruce breathes heavily into the pillow, focuses on the bitter taste of cotton against his tongue. 

Clark curls around him, a cocoon of warmth, and brushes his nose against Bruce's shoulder, presses a kiss under his ear. "You're okay," Clark whispers. His voice is soft and possesses none of the demanding reprimanding authority of Superman, but rather, the gentle trust of Clark, of Kal-El. 

"I know, I know. Just...just don't hug so tight," Bruce huffs. 

Dad's skull, Dad's face, Dad's voice ghosts around his ear and Clark pulls him closer, holds him tighter, and Dad fades. 

Clark never does listen to him. 

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. As usual.


End file.
